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Eurozone crisis to cast shadow over G-20 summit

At the G-20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, Barack Obama will have a full agenda. | Reuters

The administration has two options going forward: to isolate Russia and make Putin’s government look “preposterous and ridiculous” or to “move Russia close to the U.S. position,” Simes said. While isolation could be an attractive approach as Obama continues to face accusations from Romney that he’s been too soft on Russia, Simes said he expects the administration will continue to search for common ground.

Western countries haven’t been willing to yield, nor have Russia and China, but the time for action is approaching “because violence is increasing,” said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow on Arab politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

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China has said the G-20 is the “wrong forum,” but with tough rhetoric from the Obama administration, it’s clear the issue will be raised — especially with tensions inflamed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s accusation last week, which has since been adjusted, that Russia was sending helicopters to Assad’s government.

Managing the relationship with Mexico

Obama’s visit to Los Cabos comes less than two weeks before Mexico’s presidential election, giving him one last sit-down with President Felipe Calderon, a counterpart with whom he’s developed a good relationship.

As they often do ahead of foreign elections, officials in Washington worry privately that Calderon’s successor won’t be as strong an ally, but Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said he expects that “whichever government comes next will follow similar policies” and be cooperative with the United States.

While border issues are always the top priority in U.S.-Mexican meetings, and that will again be the case as the two leaders meet on Calderon’s home turf, the fact that Mexico is hosting the summit reflects its emergence as an economic power. “Mexico hosting the G-20 shows that it’s playing on a different field, that it’s able to play as one of the elite economies of the world,” Selee said.

And that’s clear in Calderon’s ambitions for the summit, which last week included calls for Europe to move quickly to resolve the eurozone debt crisis. The action plan for the summit, he said, will include “measures to confront and resolve the European crisis, which is ultimately an economic crisis” as well as “concrete measures on public policy in key areas in the realms of tax, finance and monetary policy, which will help to boost global growth in the long term.”

Plus: Securing the security

Aside from Obama’s fast turnaround trip to Afghanistan on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s killing, this is the president’s first trip overseas since the prostitution scandal that pulled in several members of his security team and overshadowed everything else about his trip to the Summit of the Americas in Colombia in April.

Since then, the Secret Service has put in place new rules barring traveling employees from drinking alcohol in the 10 hours before going on duty, visiting “nonreputable establishments” and inviting foreign nationals into their hotel rooms.

Brian Leary, a Secret Service spokesman, wouldn’t comment on how else this trip might be different than the Colombia one, saying the agency doesn’t usually discuss its protection of the president.

The economic situation in the world today is systemic. It will collapse. It's just question of how much longer they can kick the debt can down the road. Good times are behind us and everyone pretty much knows the truth.

Europe just didn't understand that maintaining a socialist rose garden wouldn't be cheap. Never fear! The Obama Treasury-Federal Reserve will step up to their responsibilities in the world banking cartel and contribute a little more of our E-money.

Why is it that "conservatives" can speak so much and shrilly while saying absolutely nothing except the same old bromides discredited over and again since the "good ol' days" of the 19th century? If our esteemed political leaders were more than collective bulges in the pockets of the global kleptocrats perhaps these banks and their mob bosses would be nationalized, restructured, and put to work funding actual constructive projects geared to the betterment of society rather than the further garnishment of a few already over stuffed portfolios! Of course that would entail these elected pseudo-aritocrats to live amongst their "employers" rather than their pimps! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!!